Glacier Media to shut down Kamloops Daily News

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      Kamloops is losing its daily newspaper.

      Glacier Media Inc. has signalled that it plans to close the Kamloops Daily News in the next 60 days, citing falling revenues and difficulty reducing expenses.

      The Vancouver-based media company gave notice of the coming shutdown to Unifor, the union representing its staff, according to an article on the Daily News website.

      “Personally I am very saddened to make this announcement,” Daily News publisher Tim Shoults said in the article. “We have struggled for the last several years, worked tirelessly and taken many difficult steps along the way which were designed to ensure our future. Unfortunately the realities of our industry, our local advertising market and our labour situation were too great for us to overcome.

      “We recognize that this decision severely affects our staff and their families and our hearts go out to them as they deal with the shock and loss this decision creates. We are offering our staff counseling on site at the Daily News if they wish to take advantage of it."

      According to the union's site, about 45 unionized workers will lose their jobs.

      Toronto-based political pundit Warren Kinsella, who has contributed to the paper, blogged that he is "very sad" to hear of the looming closure.

      "It’s sad because the loss of every newspaper means our democracy is diminished, in a real and measurable way. In an era where fewer and fewer citizens are voting, the media – as I have been reminded, as I have pinballed between newspapers and politics over the years – are the only institutions left who can truly hold the powerful to account, on a daily basis. Now, yet another media voice is gone," Kinsella wrote.

      "Idiot bloggers, and idiot politicians, will continue to be happy about this sort of thing. The former will say the disappearance of the so-called MSM means more audience for them. And the latter will believe that it means more opportunities to communicate to said audience “without a filter” (which really means without a pesky reporter getting in the way)."

      In November 2013, Glacier Media said it was taking measures to cut costs by more than $7 million a year.

      The roots of the Daily News go back to the Kamloops Shopper, which started up in 1931.

      Comments

      11 Comments

      Salty one

      Jan 6, 2014 at 3:47pm

      I wondered when the other shoe would drop after Glacier and Black swapped papers on the Lower Mainland last year. Now I wonder which papers will close next because Kamloops isn't the only Glacier paper that is losing money.

      Nathan

      Jan 6, 2014 at 3:48pm

      Idiot Kinsellas will continue to fail to understand how the world has changed around them.

      Patrick Smyth

      Jan 6, 2014 at 4:27pm

      Checking the glacier media website stats, looks like the Kamloops Daily site had decent circulation compared to some of the other papers its runs.

      Martin Dunphy

      Jan 6, 2014 at 4:33pm

      Nathan:

      Regardless of what you, personally, think of him, Kinsella understands exactly how the media world has changed.
      Here, he is merely lamenting the loss of accountability that entails.
      I'm with him on that.

      Rudy Haugeneder

      Jan 6, 2014 at 8:09pm

      Journalism died thanks to Apple and Microsoft, the two ill-founded companies created to destroy democracy and journalism and so-called individual freedoms (the Internet) that are now electronically manipulated by the NSA and British, Canadian and French security agencies. Worldwide, political parties with the possible exception of the Green Parties, support the death of a professional free press.

      Ken Saunders

      Jan 6, 2014 at 10:45pm

      Print media has been crippled for years. That's why I only use blogs these days.

      HellSlayerAndy

      Jan 7, 2014 at 1:12am

      Is Kinsella being ironic?

      Let's see--
      "every newspaper means our democracy is diminished"
      How? Nobody is reading them. I guess they don't think much of their former customers ability to struggle on without them. We're doomed.

      "are the only institutions left who can truly hold the powerful to account"
      The powerful own the newspapers? Where has he been? Jeez if the public did find out that it was a Deputy Director for the FBI conspiring with Woodward and Bernstein to leak the FBI's internal documents in order to bring down a sitting President, Watergate would have turned out a WHOLE lot different for the FBI and the Press!!!

      "idiot bloggers"
      ...including the fully qualified J-School trained bloggers that used to work for newspapers that went out of business? In paper they were smart; in digital they are idiots?

      "The former will say the disappearance of the so-called MSM means more audience for them."
      Lament for a monopoly? So much for the diminished democracy thang...more audience in a more accessible media translates as being 'diminished democracy' and a major city with only two dailies owned by the same company for the last fifty years is a fucking Swiss canton?

      "And the latter will believe that it means more opportunities to communicate to said audience “without a filter” (which really means without a pesky reporter getting in the way)."
      No, it means newspaper 'bloggers' don't get special access anymore...to package and market an information product originally intended for the public to begin with...or is he seriously suggesting it might be dangerous (diminished democracy!!) for politicians to communicate directly to their audience?

      "Even if you don’t live in Kamloops, this sort of thing affects all of us."
      No it doesn't. I don't think they, like me, even miss telephone books.

      Besides...the internet didn't kill newspapers, they have been dying for a while and largely due to their OWN hand and change.
      It's not the public's fault that a 200 year old TEXT-based media couldn't successfully transition their bloated revenue model to a 20 year old TEXT-based media. One would have thought that newspapers in particular when compared to other media would have THRIVED in such an environment since the limitations of print largely disappear.

      dave

      Jan 7, 2014 at 10:52am

      Ken Saunders, using blogs is akin to standing around the water cooler hearing the latest gossip made up by the yentas at the office. You may as well get your news from the bible for all it's accuracy if you are going to rely on blogs.

      Shane

      Jan 7, 2014 at 1:15pm

      What appeared to not be difficult was which shiny pin-striped suit Tim Shoults was going to wear the day reporters came around to interview him.

      I attribute KDN going down due to miss-management and NOT the electronic age creeping in.

      Put a Fedora on Tim and a Tommy-gun in hand and he LOOKS like a 40's gangster shyster.

      Poor KDN!

      Warren

      Jan 7, 2014 at 5:25pm

      Very sad to see the KDN go. Some of the comments are really ignorant. Thanks to all for some great service to the community. Hopefully something takes its' place.